A line manager unreasonably contributed to a worker's psychiatric injury by describing a complaint against him as a "serious" allegation of "harassment" in the first minutes of the very first meeting on the issue, an appeals commission has confirmed.
The injuries sustained by a worker when he fell at a public pool, after receiving medical advice to swim to relieve a work-related back condition, did not arise in the course of his employment, a court has ruled in a novel case.
> Manslaughter offence without limitation periods introduced; > WHS Code released and new exposure threshold flagged in Qld; and > SWA releases guide for hazardous prefabricated concrete sector.
A workplace "exclusion zone" was established in a way that "invited" rather than deterred access to the area, and contributed to a work experience student's life-changing injuries, a court has found in convicting and fining a PCBU.
The Fair Work Commission has commended an employer's injury-management efforts, in the lead up to the dismissal of a worker with physical and mental injuries, who claimed she was "written off" due to her mental illness.
A WHS inspector impermissibly issued a prohibition notice with the aim of focusing a PCBU's attention on a risk instead of addressing a particular "activity", a commission has ruled in quashing the notice.
A PCBU that failed to investigate a complaint from a principal contractor's safety officer has been found guilty of WHS breaches, after a worker was seriously injured falling through a void. Another PCBU and its director were previously fined $225,000 over the incident.
A supervisor who decided a worker was hard to manage and "needed to be dealt with", traumatised and psychologically injured her by intimidating her during a counselling meeting, the Federal Court has confirmed on appeal.
A PCBU has entered a $200,000 undertaking, in lieu of prosecution relating to the death of a customer's employee, in a case that examined the temporal and geographical limitations of the WHS duty to "other persons".
